Sunday, June 21, 2009

‘Ragging’ row still haunts NMR Engg College

Last Updated : 25 Feb 2009 02:32:29 PM IST

The alleged ragging at Nalla Malla Reddy Engineering College near Uppal here continues to smoulder.After three students had been beaten black and blue by their seniors, necessitating hospitalisation of one of them, the parents of juniors on Tuesday went to the college and demanded safety of their children. They wanted the seniors, their parents and even the staff of the college who were supporting them to tender an unconditional apolgy for the incidents of ragging that had taken place in the last few days.A few days ago, on the college day function, juniors became targets of attack by the seniors.Though the authorities dismissed the incident as having nothing to do with ragging, the parents of the victims and other junior students insist that the juniors are at the receiving end and unless some kind of protection is given to them, it would be difficult for them to continue in the college.Three juniors _ Hemanth Reddy, Anupam and Keshav Rao Hedgar _ were beaten up by their seniors during the annual day function for not according them enough `respect’.While the victims allege ragging, the college management dubs it as a clash between two groups of students. ``There is no ragging involved in these incidents according to our preliminary enquiry,’’ said principal of Nall Malla Reddy college P Siva Rama Prasad.Meanwhile, the AP State Council of Higher Education officials has ordered the Commisionerate of Technical Education to probe the matter.Addressing newspersons at his office APSCHE Chairman KC Reddy said that he was aware of the incidents at Nalla Malla Reddy College and that he had sought an explanation from the management.He made it clear that ragging was something that cannot be tolerated and recalled the recent Supreme Court direction that such colleges could even face the risk of losing recognition.In a related development, a complaint has been lodged with the Uppal police by a girl student of the college alleging that Hemanth Reddy was harassing her using vulgar and abusive language.``We have received a complaint from one of the junior students and are investigating,’’ Uppal police inspector B Bhaskar said, adding that their investigation revealed that there was no incidents of ragging on the campus.The final-year students, who beat up the juniors, are yet to be arrested.